The Lady Hornets were once again playing in the regional semifinals, but had a two-plus hour trip over to Adrian. Add to that they were the second game of the night and they had a lengthy wait before taking the floor.

Concord was able to take advantage of that early, building an 18-11 lead in the opening game.

But after that, it was all over.

“It’s a 2-hour bus ride, we got here, watched the game before us and I think it was us anticipating playing but not yet getting on the floor,” Mendon coach Kathy Trenary said. “So really we had to wait three and a half, four hours to play.”

Mendon rallied to win the opening game 25-22 before winning the next two 25-10 and 25-20.

“Concord likes to play long points and they try to force you to make mistakes,” Trenary said. “Early on our hits were being blocked or dug and we didn’t have patience early, it took some time.”

Mendon, who is the top-ranked team in Class C, just beat rival Bronson in four games to earn another district title on Saturday. On Tuesday night, they weathered an early storm and battled back to win in straight sets, pushing them to a regional finals matchup on Thursday in Adrian.

The Lady Hornets will take on Adrian-Madison, who beat Galesburg-Augusta in four sets Tuesday night in the semifinals.

Trenary said her squad doesn’t care where they are ranked. Anybody can lose on any day and once a team loses, the rankings really don’t matter anymore.

“We don’t think about being No. 1 — we just really try and focus on playing one game at a time, trying to be positive even if things are going bad,” she said. “We need to keep playing our game and we’re continuing to keep learning and playing that game.”

Brooke Howard led with 13 kills, 12 digs and two aces while Jordan VanOss added 13 kills, two aces and 16 digs. Alexis Russell added four aces, three blocks and 15 digs for Mendon. Loryn Baughman dishes out 29 assists and had four blocks at the net on Tuesday.

Madison improved to 49-5-6 with the win over Galesburg on Tuesday. Mendon now sits at 47-7-2.

“They’re tough,” Trenary said of Madison. “They’re not very big but they keep the ball in play and have a quick defense. They have that ‘refuse-to-lose’ type of team, it looks like.”

Madison and Mendon will meet for the regional championship Thursday night at 6:30 inside Adrian Madison High School.